Smoke from small freezer fire ruins some food at Walmart
NEW PHILADELPHIA – Walmart on Bluebell Drive had to throw out a bunch of food after a small fire in a walk-in freezer near the deli early Thursday morning.
Fire Captain Jim Sholtz says heat tape on a condenser line coming out of cooling unit shorted out just before 6:30 a.m. That caused a fairly small fire on some wooden boxes containing frozen pizzas. Firefighters got it out quickly with a water extinguisher.
Sholtz says there was smoke in the freezer and some in the deli department. He says Walmart was evacuated and closed for a few hours.
The city health department was on hand to advise store management. Sholtz said Walmart management was extra cautious and threw away a “great deal” of food, mostly the prepared foods, such as doughnuts and sandwiches.
Sholtz says damage to the cooling unit was minimal.